A tough, tough day at the office. This was about as physical a game as you
could ever go through and it was desperately disappointing to finish on the
wrong end of the scoreline.

We gave away far too many penalties in the first half and we surrendered far too much ground as a result. In scoreboard terms, we were on the back foot from that point on.

There was no single reason why were were giving away those penalties. There was no particular technical issue there, and it was especially disappointing because we had spoken all week about keeping the penalty count low.

Certainly, there was no failure of discipline out there. We’ll go back and look at the tape and hopefully put things right in our next game. We can’t afford to allow sides to put us under pressure that way – and certainly not sides as good as South Africa.

I was pleased with the way the team regrouped after the break and the effort they put in. Territorially, we were all over South Africa in the second half, although you have to pay tribute to their defence for defending their lead so well. It was pleasing to get the try we did, and it would have been more pleasing still to get another near the end, but the South Africans are a supremely well organised side.

On the plus side, we have now played the best two teams in the world on consecutive weekends and we have shown that we can keep the ball, put them under pressure and even score tries against them.

New Zealand played with a lot of speed and exploited the space we gave them, while South Africa were a different challenge becuase they probably have the best kicking game in the world and they can put you under huge pressure with that alone.

However, in neither game have we been able to put in an 80 minute performance, and you have to do that against teams of their calibre. We will be up against Tonga in Aberdeen next weekend, and the thing I will be stressing in the days leading up to the game is that we need that focus and effort from start to finish.

We always knew that this was going to be a massive physical contest. We prepared for that and I think we stood our ground pretty well in most areas of the game. We can take confidence from the fact that were certainly not bullied out of the game at any point.

No matter what happens against Tonga next weekend, this result means we cannot get into the top eight of the world rankings and will therefore be seeded a a third-tier side when the Rugby World Cup draw is made next month. That’s disappointing because it makes the tournament significantly more challenging, as we discovered last year, but it was not something we were dwelling on in the build-up.

It’s all the more disappointing to lose as our build-up had gone so well. We even felt good in the warm-up, pretty confident. It’s credit to South Africa that they denied us the chance to play the kind of game we wanted.

That said, I was proud of the way the team rallied in adversity and put up such a good fight in the second half. Our try was very pleasing too as it was a planned move that we had put together after watching videos of South Africa and reckoned there might be space there.

People might think that Tonga are not on a par with the teams we have faced over the past two weekends, but what Samoa did to Wales on Friday showed that how potent these island sides are. Our concentration will not drop at all over the next few days. I said recently that we wanted to make the nation proud, and after two defeats that’s still a bit of unfinished business for this team.